Supervisor Johnson votes against Skipper Boulevard

KINGMAN – Mohave County Supervisor Buster Johnson has voted against funding for libraries and parks in the past, and on Monday he took a stance against improving county roads.

Johnson cast the lone opposing vote in the board’s 3-1 approval to establish a 1.4-mile section of Skipper Boulevard in the White Hills area as a county highway. Supervisor Lois Wakimoto was absent.

Jerry Richards, president of the White Hills homeowners association, spoke to the board during a public hearing about dust created by trucks driving down a stretch of the road to the Kalamazoo gravel quarry.

He wants to use leftover millings from the Arizona Department of Transportation’s improvement project on U.S. Highway 93 to surface Skipper Boulevard at a cost of about $200,000 for Public Works.

Richards said the road goes “smack dab” through the middle of their development, and all they’re asking is for the county to take care of the road for public safety and dust mitigation.

“We have no services out there, no police department, no fire department, no county services,” Richards said.

Johnson’s response was the same as it was for residents who wanted to keep rural library branches open for Wi-Fi internet service.

“On the other hand, everybody chose to live out there, but now you come to the county to pave your road,” Johnson said.

In addition to the White Hills road, Mohave County supervisors voted 3-1 (Johnson opposed) to accept 1.25 miles of Banegas Ranch Road to U.S. 93 into the Mohave County road program for regular maintenance only to the degree of improvement as a gravel roadway; set a public hearing for acceptance of a total of 1.6 miles of roads at Kingman Airport into the county’s regular road maintenance system; and acknowledge receipt of a petition to bring about a half-mile of Zentiff Drive from Indian Wells Road to Sacramento Road in the Golden Valley area into the county’s road system for regular maintenance.

In other action from Monday’s board meeting:

• Supervisors took no action on an item removed from the consent agenda by Johnson related to expenses with the county’s 219 fleet vehicles. Public Works was asking to increase the fixed rate from $75 to $150 a month for each vehicle and decrease mileage rate to 25 cents from 39 cents. Johnson said he was bothered that other departments used cost savings from staff cuts to increase employee wages, which is not something he supports, but Public Works wasn’t using savings for raises for its mechanics.

• The board voted 4-0 to continue discussion on the Mohave Valley Community Park at its second meeting in December. The park committee is going to come back to the board with an amendment to its 2015 park development agreement to extend the agreement and clarify spending on park improvements, including receipts for work performed.

• The board voted 4-0 to approve the contract of County Administrator Mike Hendrix in the amount of $168,133, using Mohave Educational Services Cooperative contract. In addition, the county will pay nearly $14,000 into the Arizona State Retirement System. Even after paying a $5,900 fee to the recruitment firm, the county saves $5,713 in county administrator salary, Finance Director Coral Loyd said.